NERDS... GEEKS... cyber-junkies, computer game players have long had a bad rap. Ever since Pacman and Space Invaders gave way to labyrinthian adventures such as Dungeons And Dragons, players have been stereotyped as pallid-faced youths, shoulders hunched over keyboards and joysticks for hours while living a hermit-like existence with a computer as their only friend.
Two deaths in the past 15 months have hardly helped boost this image. Ng Man-fai, 28, and Lai Pui-sun, 17, were both found slumped over tables in separate cyber cafes after long stints playing Diablo II. Both were apparently healthy and had no drug habits, causing some medics to suggest that long-term exposure to flashing lights from the screen may have triggered their collapse.
So it comes as a welcome surprise to meet Hong Kong's computer gaming champions practising for this October's third World Cyber Games in South Korea and discover seven sensible, well-rounded and fashionably dressed youths. The players, aged 16 to 22 and including straight-A students, will take on 600 competitors from 56 countries for a share of US$350,000 prize money and global kudos. The stakes are high, but the players share the view that online gaming is for fun, not for life.
'People in Hong Kong always have a bad impression of computer game players because they think we only play and think of nothing else,' says Jason Lam Sui-kei, 18, a Year 13 international school student who scored six A grades at GCSE. 'But the problem is not about computer games, it's about self-discipline.'
All seven finalists say they play games for just a few hours a day and enjoy sports and other hobbies. 'Some game players think computer games are more important than school,' Lam says. 'They usually won't do their schoolwork until they've finished playing.'
Lam is one member of a five-strong team, iChor, that won the Hong Kong and Macau preliminary heats of the game Half-Life: Counter-Strike at this month's Samsung Digital Challenge, securing a place in the finals.
Half-Life: Counter-Strike is a gory shooting game. Players slip into mode as virtual reality special forces, frantically pressing cursors to zap dangerous terrorists. Although the game is high on blood and violence, it is popular with both sexes. Players can link up with friends online to form a team.